#SampleSunday: The Cashmere Shroud by Ed Lynskey

Hi, Ed Lynskey here. I write a new cozy mystery series featuring a pair of senior sister sleuths, Isabel and Alma Trumbo, who live in Quiet Anchorage, Virginia. The opening paragraphs to Chapter 3 set the small town locale and describe the main characters in The Cashmere Shroud which is #2 in the series:

Start of Chapter 3:

To say little happened in the single traffic light hamlet of Quiet Anchorage would be a gross inaccuracy. It had surrendered the “quiet” component to its double-word name. Within the past year, a brace of murders—Jake Robbins and now Ray Burl Garner—had rocked the township, and murder wasn’t supposed to upset such rural pockets of tranquility. Long ago, Isabel and Alma had left Quiet Anchorage, but only because not everybody living there could find a good job at the bank, post office, or public schools. Isabel debated if their return after their retirements had been a mistake. They’d sought a lazier, slower lifestyle after their long decades toiling in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Quiet Anchorage was once a vital depot with a 50,000-gallon water tank to replenish the thirsty steam engines. The Coronet River meandered by Quiet Anchorage’s southern flank. The summer-long drought had depleted the river’s flow to the point where it trickled over the exposed red sandbars, black volcanic rocks, and deadfall trees.

The young folks picnicked and skinny dipped, if the mercury climbed into the three-figure digits as it had on more than one August afternoon. Canoeists and kayakers liked to traverse the Coronet River designated as one of Virginia’s scenic byways. However due to the drought making the water shallow, the sportsmen floating in their personal crafts dragged river bottom, so they had to substitute other leisure pursuits.

A historic steel truss railroad bridge erected during the first decade of the twentieth century spanned the Coronet River. Last year, the town council had voted to hire a local contractor (i.e., the mayor’s nephew) to repaint the bridge a silverish gray shade. Its industrial look pleased Alma while Isabel judged it as just shy of abominable. The sandy banks under the bridge offered a clean, shady spot where Sammi Jo liked to retreat, chill out while sitting on the driftwood log big as a sofa, and do her deepest thinking.

Toward sevenish o’clock, she relaxed on the log, dabbling her toes in the refreshing pool of water. As a rule of thumb, she preferred solitude when she was mulling over issues. For this visit, however, she had company. She didn’t mind it. Isabel perched on a nearby flat rock a couple steps behind Sammi Jo while Alma remained standing between the other two ladies.

End of #SampleSunday for The Cashmere Shroud by Ed Lynskey, Book #2 in the Isabel and Alma Trumbo Cozy Mystery Series.